Foodie!

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my new found fun in cooking. Okay, so I think I'm becoming a bit of a...how you say...foodie. If you knew me a few years ago, you would know that cooking was not really my thing; but lately, I've been on a roll with our new healthy diet. It has almost forced me to become more creative, and step out of my comfort zone. In doing this, I have realized that I'm not a horrible improv cook. In fact, I'm pretty good.

Last week, my niece suggest I find a way to incorporate raw spinach into our dinner. I willingly accepted the challenge, as raw spinach is a favorite around here! Actually, any raw veggie is a pretty big success with my family. Of course, at first I was thinking about serving it as a salad dish, but that just didn't seem good enough.

Here's what I came up with: Garlic Spinach Chicken Wraps with Sauteed Onion . It was a huge success, and I mean huge! Even my pickiest six year old eater ate it all up! It's super easy, and the perfect weeknight dinner. Here's the recipe...

What you'll need:
Olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of your skillet)
Four chicken breasts, thinly sliced
Two tablespoons of minced garlic
One onion, sliced (I used yellow)
Sugar
Salt
White wine
Bacon Bits
Flat Out (or another whole wheat flat bread)
Fresh spinach
Cream Cheese (I used one ounce per Flat Out)

Here's what you do:
Cook chicken in a large skillet with the olive oil and garlic. Remove from the skillet and keep warm. Heat more olive oil, and add the onion. This part will take a while...saute the onion, making sure to brown it but not burn it. You'll have to keep it moving. You want it to sit long enough that it will brown, but not stick to the pan. If it sticks, that means they are burning. Add some sugar (about two tablespoons) to the onion, then add salt. Keep them moving! Once they are browned, but not burned (hopefully!) add a dash of white wine to deglaze your pan. Remove from heat.

 This is what the onion should look like when you are finished. I know, it's not the prettiest thing to look at, but mmm...mmm!

Now the fun part! Assembling the wrap! Lay the Flat Out on a plate. Spread the cream cheese on and add the chicken, spinach, bacon, and onion. Wrap it up, and slice into "pinwheels" if desired.

There it is! I feel like this is my first "real" recipe that I really came up with. I know it's no four course meal, but it sure will go over great in your family! If you make this, please leave me a comment and let me know how you like it. I'd love to hear from anyone who makes it!

As if that weren't enough, I also whipped up (like how I make it sound effortless?...Yeah, it's my blog, so I can make myself sound amazing), a pecan pie cheesecake this afternoon. I'm hoping it'll be a great desert for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I'm always nervous about trying new recipes for the first time on a large group of people. Hoping it'll be a success! If you'd like the recipe, check out my Pinterest Board.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!



Oh, and here is some after dinner cuteness, just because.

Yikes, and one more thing since I feel like this is a bit of a catch up post. I also wanted to show off the fancy new label I made for Deborah's backpack. I realized the other day while I was sending her to school with her teacher's Thanksgiving gift that there was no way to make sure Deborah let her know it was in her backpack. So I made this little tag with a clip on it. Now I can always make sure they know when she has something important to give them! The days she doesn't need it, I store it in a little pocket in the front of her bag. I was thrilled with how it turned out, AND I got to use my laminator! Love my laminator!

Okay, that is all.